New Delhi, Aug 24 - With a rise in cases of Indian women being deserted by their husbands on foreign shores, the National Commission for Women (NCW) Monday announced setting up of an NRI Cell on Aug 27 to tend to such complaints and counsel the victims.

'Parliament has designated NCW as the coordinating agency at the national level to receive and process all the complaints related to Indian women deserted by their overseas Indian husbands. We have decided to launch a NRI cell to counsel the women in this regard,' NCW chairperson Girija Vyas told reporters here.

According to official data, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has so far received 42 complaints of women being abandoned by their NRI husbands. In 2008, the ministry reported 55 such cases.